Reprehension
by FullMetalPon-3
Summary: Gambling is a very dangerous for many reasons, but on the Inkwell Isles, children need to be taught from a young age why.


"C'mon Elder Kettle, hurry!" called the trembling eight-year-old mug, hiking up his overalls in order to run faster. "They're over here!"

"I'm going as fast as I can, Mugman," the brass teapot told him, doing his best to keep up with the rambunctious child. His cane did make it much more troublesome to move quickly.

The sound of a scuffle reached Elder Kettle's ears, and it sounded relatively violent. Mugman had already stopped, gawking at whatever lay ahead.

Finally he caught up with the child, and realized what had him so frightened. In the middle of the trail, rolling around on the ground and hitting each other with as much force as they could muster, were two small figures. One was a kitten that lived in the neighborhood, named Tap. From what Elder Kettle had seen of him, he was a nice boy, a little too curious for his own good. Mugman seemed to like playing marbles with him.

The other was Cuphead, Mugman's nine-year-old brother, who also lived under the care of Elder Kettle. Cuphead could always be a little hot-headed, but Kettle had never seen him in a fight as violent as this.

A little ways off, a few children from around the isle watched the fight with a mixture of amusement and fear.

"Hey! Hey!" Elder Kettle called. "Stop it this instant!"

This caught Cuphead's attention, and he looked up for a moment, until Tap scratched the side of his cheek in this moment of distraction. Cuphead immediately retaliated by grabbing one of his ears and pulling it, eliciting a wail from the cat.

Mugman shuddered and put a gloved hand on Elder Kettle's leg. "Make them stop, Elder Kettle! They're gonna break each other if you don't!"

Elder Kettle stepped briskly forward, grabbed Cuphead's handle, and jerked him backwards, causing the porcelain child to fall quite solidly on his rump. In the same smooth motion, he planted his cane down in front of Tap, stopping the kitten from jumping back onto Cuphead.

The two children glared at each other, while the group standing behind looked a bit nervous at Elder Kettle's sudden intervention. Mugman, ready to cry, hurried up to the side of his brother.

Kettle looked around, and noticed a few coins, some bottlecaps, and a deck of worn playing cards scattered about throughout the clearing. He frowned.

"What happened?" he asked.

Both boys began speaking at the same time.

"Cuphead is a dirty cheat, sir!"

"Tap's a sore loser, Elder Kettle!"

They started, then fixed their eyes on each other harshly. "I AM NOT!" they screamed, in unison, and raised their fists again.

"STOP IT!" Elder Kettle raised his voice, which was quite a rarity for him. The two stepped back in shock. "Since you can't open your mouths without insulting each other, I need someone else to tell me the story." He looked at the crowd of children expectantly. They suddenly all became very interested in the dirt path. "Anyone?" he coaxed.

"Um-" Mugman started.

"Don't," Cuphead hissed at his little brother. Elder Kettle grabbed his straw and gave it a sharp tug.

"Mugman, please tell me," Elder Kettle asked gently.

The child trembled, his eyes flickering between the other children and Elder Kettle. He was clearly worried about what the others would think of him for revealing the details of this fight. "You're going to get mad..."

"I'm already very mad, Mugman," Elder Kettle told him calmly. "Just tell me so I know what I can do to help."

Mugman gulped and took a shaky breath. "C-Cuphead and ev-everyone… um..."

"C'mon," Elder Kettle coaxed.

"We were… p-playing p-po-poker," he stated, deathly quiet.

Cuphead and Tap's expressions changed from anger to dread. The children standing to the side looked ready to make a run for it. Their parents clearly had given them the same rules as Elder Kettle had given to the boys. _'Don't ever let me catch you gambling, or I'll give you a punishment you won't forget.'_

"And then what happened?" he continued, wondering why Cuphead and Tap had been so fiercely set on injuring each other.

"Um, uh… Cuphead kept winning, and Ta-Tap said he was cheating. And when Cuphead said he wasn't, Tap hit him with a rock. S-so, Cuphead started fighting with him," Mugman finished.

Elder Kettle wished he could say he was surprised, but he honestly wasn't. He looked over to Cuphead and noticed that he was covering up part of his cheek. His glove was soaked with milk.

"Oh, you're mad," Mugman quivered, noticing the furrowing of Elder Kettle's brow. "You're really, really mad."

"I am furious," Elder Kettle said, giving them all a harsh glare, which sent a collective squirm through the youngsters. "Honestly, do you think that we adults tell you these things to keep you from having fun?"

"Yes," one of the older boys to the side muttered quietly.

Elder Kettle fixed his eyes on him. "Is this what you find fun? Beating each other into the ground over money?!" Kettle turned to Mugman, still wide-eyed and shivering. "And I'm very disappointed in you, Mugman. You should have told me immediately."

"Uh, sir?" a little girl spoke up. "Cuphead told him that he would beat him up if he said anything to you."

Kettle's eyes widened, then narrowed. If Cuphead had threatened his own little brother, whom he was normally very protective of, he must have really wanted to do this. "Alright," he finally sighed. "You all," he gestured to the other children, "you all go home now. You can expect I'll be telling your parents about this in a few days to come."

The children quickly gathered up their coins and bottle caps and left. Elder Kettle stopped Tap. "Even if Cuphead was cheating, you can't start fights like that. You could have shattered him with that rock. Best get that temper under control, young man."

"Uh, yes sir," Tap murmured. He shot Cuphead a look of pity and hurried off.

Kettle turned, eyeing Cuphead's cheek. At this point, the milk had so over-saturated his glove, it had begun to drip to the ground in a steady stream. Cuphead looked a bit tired and gray. That had to be addressed sooner rather than later.

"C'mon, you two," Elder Kettle told them. "We're going home."

…

As soon as Cuphead was bandaged and cleaned up, he was sent straight to bed without any dinner. Mugman had a good cry, and afterwards Elder Kettle made him polish the silverware. It probably was not as harsh of a punishment as he had been expecting.

The next day, Elder Kettle gave the very sullen Cuphead a long list of chores and tasks to do, such as dusting off the antiques, weeding the garden, and painting the house. Once he was done, he was given dinner and sent to bed early again. Several days went by in such a fashion, with Cuphead only looking more and more tired and sulky at the end of each one. Mugman no longer went up to the room they shared but instead made a makeshift mattress out of pillows in the living room and slept there every night. Elder Kettle wanted to stop him, but the poor child was still so upset, he decided to leave him be. He needed to sort out Cuphead, first of all.

One evening, Elder Kettle came into the brothers' room and found Cuphead sobbing underneath the covers, doing his best to cover it up and appear asleep when he heard Kettle come in.

"Cuphead," Elder Kettle said gently, sitting on the edge of his bed. "Why don't we talk?" He rubbed Cuphead's back, but let him stay underneath the covers.

There was a loud sniff and a shaky intake of breath from the child. "Are you go-going to put me in jail?"

"Jail?" Elder Kettle had to suppress a chuckle. Cuphead was still very upset and laughing at his overactive imagination wouldn't help anything. "Why would you think that?"

Cuphead peeked out from underneath his comforter. "Be-because you- _hic_ -you said that wh-when the po-police catch people ga-gambling, they put th-them in jail..."

"No," Elder Kettle said, giving him another pat. "I said that people sometimes go to jail because they gamble too much."

"Oh."

"How's your cheek?"

"S'okay," Cuphead muttered.

Kettle tapped his fingers on the bedframe. "Mugman says you won't talk to him."

The sheets rustled. "He _sniff_ \- wants to talk to me?"

"Of course he does. He forgives you."

"Oh." He sounded just the tiniest bit relieved. Cuphead must have deeply regretted bullying his little brother.

"He also told me you learned how to play poker by spying on Mr. Carnation and the Roots." Elder Kettle growled internally. Those fellows hadn't met their downfall by gambling, per se, but it had set them on the path. They should have known better. "Why would you do something like that?"

There was a long pause. Kettle counted to ten in his head. "So that everybody would stop making fun of me," the answer finally came.

Kettle frowned. Maybe this was more serious than Cuphead simply showing rebellion. "Cuphead… do they bully you?"

Another pause. "No… but… they tease me… and they don't let me and Mugs play with them…"

"Why?" Elder Kettle asked, concerned.

"Because you told their parents that they weren't allowed to play rough with us," Cuphead murmured, intently staring at his caretaker from his tiny peephole.

The guardian felt his heart sink. He had said something like that, hadn't he? But the boys were just so fragile! A few hits, and they'd be shattered forever, and he'd never be able to forgive himself for that. It was difficult to convey that to a lonely child, though.

"Cuphead..." Elder Kettle had to choose his next words carefully. "Sometimes… there are things that… I tell you not to do, even though they're fun and they don't seem dangerous."

"But why?!" the child pleaded, finally poking his head out of his covers. Kettle noted the tear stains decorating his cheeks. "I finally found something I was good at and people liked to do with me! I wasn't cheating, honest!" He held up his hands to show he wasn't crossing his fingers. "I just kept getting really good cards! Tap's the one who started it!"

Elder Kettle flicked his nose. "You knew I told you gambling was dangerous, but you did it anyway. It was wrong of Tap to throw that rock, but you shouldn't have been playing poker at all."

Cuphead stared at his guardian, then turned his back to him. "You just don't want us to have fun."

Kettle tightened his grip on his cane. Perhaps the boys were old enough to understand. "Alright. I'll tell you why." Cuphead turned, surprised. "Mugman, you get in here, too." Obediently, Mugman shuffled out from behind the door frame, where he had been eavesdropping from. Elder Kettle moved to the center, letting each boy sit on either side of him. He gently wrapped his arms around them.

"You see, Inkwell is very special. And when you have a special place like this, you tend to bring around the wrong sort of company. There's a place, across the railroad tracks of the Phantom Express, where you must never go…"

 **I will be changing my username to Fullmetalpon-3 soon. Fullmetalpon-3 is also the name of my Tumblr. If you like Cuphead, Don't Starve, Invader Zim, Fullmetal Alchemist, and artwork, come follow m** **e.**


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